From the Naval Academy Alumni Association and Foundation website, see paste below. I think the last element of the Foundation mission statement is the one of interest to most on this forum. (bolding mine)

USNA Foundation

The U.S. Naval Academy Foundation helps to advance the Naval Academy and the Naval Academy Alumni Association by providing private resources to achieve and maintain a broad range of mission-enhancing activities that support the nation's premier leadership institution and its graduates.

The Foundation's responsibilities in support of the Naval Academy include developing, promoting, and enhancing the programs and facilities of the Naval Academy and its Alumni; soliciting and providing private gifts and grants in support of the Academy's highest priorities within its Centers of Excellence � Leadership & Character, Academic, Athletic, and Admissions; receiving, managing, distributing and investing private contributions exclusively for the benefit of the Brigade of Midshipmen, the Naval Academy and its alumni; and advancing the admission of highly qualified candidates to the Naval Academy by providing scholarship opportunities to enable aspiring young men and women to attend private preparatory schools.
Phone: (410) 295-4100

There are many more qualified than I to comment on how the program actually works, but a Foundation scholarship to a prep school is offered to some candidates.

From my understanding of the Foundation program, not all of the students who go through the admissions process that admissions would like to send the NAPS can go. Foundation allows for additional students to attend a NAPS-like program with the same end goal: become better qualified for admission to the Naval Academy.

Thanks for getting back to that topic so quickly. So in a rough estimate is there a set number of candidates that are given the chance to attend NAPS each year, or is it on a year by year basis, and what the Academy needs?

There is not a set number of slots that will be used from year to year; it depends upon how many slots the Foundation can fund in a given year and the number of candidates Admissions wants to designate for a NAF prep scholarship. The important thing for a candidate to keep in mind is that Admissions has made the designation for a good reason, the prep school program slots are not squandered. The selection rate from qualified prep programs is in the 90% range. Impression is that most of the non-selected preppers are those who have declined the offer. The preppers also tend to be quite successful at USNA.

From my understanding of the Foundation program, not all of the students who go through the admissions process that admissions would like to send the NAPS can go. Foundation allows for additional students to attend a NAPS-like program with the same end goal: become better qualified for admission to the Naval Academy.

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A subtle correction... while the end-game is like NAPS, be assured that the Foundation academic experience is far more rigorous than NAPS which seeks to be Foundation-like in terms of academic enhancement of students.

Foundation schools can and do award diplomas. NAPS does not. All Foundation schools are fully accredited by the appropriate regional accrediting agency. NAPS is not listed among accredited institutions by the New England Association of Schools and Colleges.

I'm always amazed that NAPS and Foundation students are not required to re-take ACT/SATs even if they are not surprisingly, not shared with the public funders. Of course what it would either validate or debunk the notion that students' math and English skills are significantly enhanced. My guess is that the powers-that-be know what that would and would not show.

I'm always amazed that NAPS and Foundation students are not required to re-take ACT/SATs even if they are not surprisingly, not shared with the public funders. Of course what it would either validate or debunk the notion that students' math and English skills are significantly enhanced. My guess is that the powers-that-be know what that would and would not show.

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From the letter sent to DS this past May by the USNA Foundation Director, Captain Wallace: "SAT/ACT testing. The Naval Academy is evaluating the overall prep school experience, both in the Foundation schools as as at NAPS. Part of the evaluation is to see if a candidate's SAT or ACT scores will improve during their prep year. Therefore, all prep students in both programs will be required to re-take the SAT's or ACT's at least once during the prep year. Assuming that you are doing well in your academic courses and are meeting all requirements for earning your appointment to the Naval Academy, whether you improve your SAT/ACT scores should not be the overriding determinant in your appointment decision. You may take part in a SAT/ACT prep course if available, but don't let it take priority over your regular academic courses."

Hello! I'm the mom of a current Foundation Program candidate. My son's situation was that he was accepted to the USNA however had unexpected knee surgery in May and was not cleared by I-Day to attend. We found out the day before that he was not cleared We were then contacted by Captain Wallace and offered a Foundation Program Scholarship. In our situation, we received a Foundation Scholarship, prep scholarship directly from the school and we did have to come up with a portion of the tuition.

I wanted to also confirm that Foundation students do indeed have to retake SAT/ACT in their PG year. Foundation requires it be taken twice.

My son did have to obtain a new nomination however did not have to do the entire USNA application all over again! The Foundation will present all students at once to the board for consideration of a new offer of appointment.

I'm happy to answer anymore questions you may have so feel free to reach out to me!

Kar! Thanks for this update. It's a good move for the obvious, stated reasons. I've long contended that NAPS is a minor league "foundation" school. The advantages for Navy operating this enormously expensive option include primarily "control" of any number of issues including admissions, completion, grading, instruction, information control, etc.

It's a reasonable, likely hypothesis to suggest that places like Mercersburg, NMMI, Kiski, Hill, Lawrenceville, etc ... all long-standing, highly regarded, fully accredited preparatory schools might do a collective, consistantly superior job of improving academic performance. But the testing, using a level playing field would serve to confirm or correct that hypothesis. And we can bet that no matter the cost of tuiton, room, and board at prep schools, it has to be monumentally less money than operating a free-standing institution.

And with sequestration looking to be a viable possibility if not probability, and an administration hellbent on shrinking our military might, one might wonder if this testing requirement may be a precursor to, dare I say it, preparatory efforts to morph NAPS into the Foundation program.

In any case, let's hope that the testing results are made specific and available to candidates and taxpayers. My guess? These stats will never see the light of day, unless they can serve sustaining some status quos.

Anyone(s) know what or who brought the pressure to evaluate NAPS candidates as we are seeing the Foundation has required. And how long the Fdn. has done so? And have they made their results public? (They are also accountable to the public as a registered non-profit 501 entity.)

Hello! I'm the mom of a current Foundation Program candidate. My son's situation was that he was accepted to the USNA however had unexpected knee surgery in May and was not cleared by I-Day to attend. We found out the day before that he was not cleared We were then contacted by Captain Wallace and offered a Foundation Program Scholarship. In our situation, we received a Foundation Scholarship, prep scholarship directly from the school and we did have to come up with a portion of the tuition.

I wanted to also confirm that Foundation students do indeed have to retake SAT/ACT in their PG year. Foundation requires it be taken twice.

My son did have to obtain a new nomination however did not have to do the entire USNA application all over again! The Foundation will present all students at once to the board for consideration of a new offer of appointment.

I'm happy to answer anymore questions you may have so feel free to reach out to me!

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Really good gouge! This scenario illustrates several major differences between the Foundation students and NAPS students.

2. Who might qualify. NAPS could not have taken your son. He was too "bright", i.e. he was obviously scholastically and 3 Qed, eligble for an appointment.

The only appointable qualified candidates I'm aware of who are offered NAPS are those coming from the Fleet. All others were not deemed eligible to compete for an appointment, if I understand correctly.

2. Who might qualify. NAPS could not have taken your son. He was too "bright", i.e. he was obviously scholastically and 3 Qed, eligble for an appointment.

The only appointable qualified candidates I'm aware of who are offered NAPS are those coming from the Fleet. All others were not deemed eligible to compete for an appointment, if I understand correctly.

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No gouge intended son. I simply stated my son's situation. This has nothing to do with NAPS because I'm sure as you well know with your 1400+ postings, NAPS is completely full by I-Day. Fact is a fact, son was offered Foundation and took it as NAPS was FULL, has nothing to do with how bright he is. The original poster asked about the Foundation Program and I opted to explain my situation to help someone out. End of story.

No gouge intended son. I simply stated my son's situation. This has nothing to do with NAPS because I'm sure as you well know with your 1400+ postings, NAPS is completely full by I-Day. Fact is a fact, son was offered Foundation and took it as NAPS was FULL, has nothing to do with how bright he is. The original poster asked about the Foundation Program and I opted to explain my situation to help someone out. End of story.

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If I'm all wet here then please ignore my comment. It was hard to tell from reading your post Murphdog but I think you misunderstood WhistlePig. Gouge is military slang meaning - Informal information channel; the grapevine; the straight dope; inside information. He was complementing you on your informative post.